The Nuremberg Trial

1162

Editorial: ‘Nuernberg experiment’

A turning point has been reached in what Associate Justice Jackson calls the “Nuernberg experiment.”

Eleven of the Nazi leaders have forfeited their lives. Hermann Goering cheated the gallows by swallowing poison at the last hour. The others were hanged. It may be said of them that they went to their deaths as brave men. With the possible exception of Joachim von Ribbentrop, the condemned revealed no consciousness of guilt, no sign of remorse. Instead, they seemed in their final statements to be appealing to the opinion of the world against the judgment of the court and against the principles upon which their conviction rested.

Nevertheless, Mr. Jackson is amply justified in his contention that the prosecutors, in the short-range sense, “have done what we set out to do.” They have established in international law the principle that it is a punishable crime for any individual to plan or conduct aggressive war. They have also made it a punishable crime to persecute minorities in connection with such a war, or in preparation for such a war, or as a policy toward inhabitants of occupied countries.

This is the principal fruit of the Nuernberg experiment and it can become a significant landmark in the progress of mankind. Yet, as Mr. Jackson so plainly recognizes both in his recent address at the University of Buffalo and in his report to the President, what the world has here is a mere beginning and not an end. The Nuernberg experiment, as such, is successfully concluded. Now the question is whether the people of the world will build upon it to the end that the principles established will serve not only to punish the vanquished architects of the Nazi conspiracy, but also to deliver people everywhere from persecution and oppression and slavery.

It is an unhappy fact that, even as the Nazi conspirators mounted the gallows, offenses kindred to those for which they were condemned were being practiced with impunity throughout numerous countries of the world. In Russia, whose representative sat in judgment on the German offenders, there is the familiar array of concentration camps, secret police, intolerance of dissenters and many of the other tools of tyranny which served Hitler’s purposes. Nor is this true of Russia alone, for there are other countries in which those who dissent from the will of the majority live in constant dread of the tap on the shoulder which signals the beginning of the march to the concentration camp or worse.

All of this, of course, is well known to Mr. Jackson, and it is because of this, perhaps, that he says “we are too close to the Nuernberg trial to appraise its long-range effects.” Yet, as he puts it, the possibility is real that in the present depressing world outlook the trial may constitute the most important “moral advance” to grow out of the war.

This cannot possibly be so, however, without a wealth of intelligent sacrifice, courage and effort. The principles of Nuernberg will wither and die if the men of the free countries shrink from the implications of future tyrannies as they shrank from that of Hitler’s. This time, in the last analysis, the danger that is inherent in any ruthless dictatorship must be recognized and somehow dealt with before the inevitable evolution of totalitarianism touches off another war.

1163

Letter: Postmortem on Nazi criminals against Biblical background

Editor: A postmortem is a distasteful task. Experts surround the examiner with the scalpel, seeking the cause of death. But a war postmortem verdict, occasioned by the Nuernberg executions of the Nazi high command, is a foregone conclusion. Civilization pauses to reflect upon the inglorious venture of madmen intent upon world domination.

It was Wesner Fallaw, writing in the Christian Century, under the title of “Atomic Apocalypse,” who declared that “the world is sick unto death. Politicians, statesmen, nations and international bodies are making plana for its recovery. So are the churches. But the churches – unlike all the others – may be called on to come forward with a No. 2 plan of action. No other agency will.”

International law may punish, obliterate potential rabble rousers, in a precedent shattering elimination of enemy war leaders. But in the final analysis this is scriptural, backed by a God-given right to rule. This fundamental law was expounded by no less an apostolic authority than St. Paul. This apostle was decapitated for his insistence upon personal freedom of religion, for not rendering obeisance to the imperial gods of ancient Rome. As a judge of emperors, fearless of their power to snuff out his life, St. Paul nevertheless upheld their divine right to rule, in these immortal words of counsel to the Romans, chapter 13: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: … for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. … But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid: for he beareth not the sword in vain a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.”

Here is a leader of the early Christian church who “fought a good fight… kept the faith,” even to the moment of feeling the axman’s blade upon his neck. He died a martyr’s death that others might survive in the cause of a desperate struggle for civil and religious freedoms.

There are only two courses in the stream of life – good or evil. An international court of justice exhausts all efforts to find evidence of innocence; and finally and inexorably must hand down a just verdict of guilt against the misdeeds of men of an Axis coalition who ruled the destinies of more than 100,000,000 subjects.

We write this unglittering epitaph to be hung in darkened halls of memory over unmarked graves, of those supermen whose limp bodies swing briefly from the gibbet for an example to posterity: “They fought a foul and evil fight… and failed to keep faith with humanity.”

Of them is typical this vision of Prophet Isaiah of the Old Testament of the Bible: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven… I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, ‘Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms?’”

How near the democracies came to the point of sinking is revealed by London sources in a booklet just released, entitled, “The Battle of the Atlantic,” which declares that “German submarines sank 2,775 merchant ships totaling 14,500,000 tons in the grim battle of the Atlantic in World War II and were a menace to the Allies up to the moment Germany collapsed.”

Civilization suffered, breathes again somewhat asthmatically, but is rising. How long will It stand on its feet again? Another menace, which is driving a wedge between East and West, points to a cleavage of humanity. An image with feet of clay stands shakily on its pedestal. When will it be cast down?

CHARLES ALLEN RENTFRO

1 Like
1164

L’Aube (October 18, 1946)

AINSI FINIT LA TERREUR BRUNE
Les cadavres des chefs nais ont été incinérés

et leurs cendres dispersées secrètement

Les corps de Goering et des autres grands criminels de guerre exécutés à Nuremberg ont été incinérés et leurs cendres dispersées secrètement.

Voici le texte du communiqué officiel publié à cette occasion par la commission quadripartite pour la détention des grands criminels de guerre :

« Le corps de Hermann Wilhelm Goering ainsi que les corps des criminels de guerre exécutés à Nuremberg, le 16 octobre 1946, conformément aux condamnations prononcées par le tribunal militaire international, ont été incinérés. Les cendres ont été secrètement dispersées. »

Qui a fourni le poison à Hermann Goering ?

La commission américaine de trois membres, chargée d’enquêter sur le suicide de Hermann Goering, a procédé hier à l’interrogatoire séparé de toutes les personnes qui de près ou de loin ont approché l’ex-Reichsmarschall pendant les jours qui ont précédé sa mort.

Douze employés allemands feraient l’objet d’une enquête serrée. Ils ne sont pas arrêtés mais « retenus » jusqu’à ce qu’ils aient pu se disculper.

Le colonel B. C. Andrus, commandant de la prison, se déclare convaincu de l’innocence de son personnel. Pour lui, ce doit être un avocat allemand qui a remis l’ampoule de cyanure à Goering, sans doute au cours des derniers jours du procès.

Par contre, son assistant, le major Fred Teich, se déclare personnellement convaincu que Goering, d’une manière ou d’une autre, a réussi à dissimuler la fiole, et l’avait en sa possession peut être depuis le premier Jour de sa détention

Tous deux s’attendent â être interrogés par la commission d’enquête. À leur avis. Mme Goering est hors de cause. On avait pensé que c’était elle qui aurait transmis l’ampoule à son mari, au cours de leur dernière rencontre. Mais, déclare le major Teich, il ne lui aurait pas été possible de donner quoi que ce fut à son mari, au cours d’une visite, car elle était séparée de lui par un écran de verre.

Le major Teich est également hostile à la théorie suivant laquelle ce serait l’un des gardes qui aurait remis le poison à Goering, en échange de l’un de ses fabuleux diamants. Tous les bijoux de Goering, en effet, se trouvent enfermés dans le coffre de la prison.

De son côté, le docteur Walter Siemers, défenseur de l’amiral Raeder, affirme que Goering lui-même, il y a près d’un an, lui aurait déclaré qu’il ne serait pas pendu, mais qu’il se tuerait.

1165

Prenez garde M. Jakson !

Goering s’est donc soustrait à son sort. À New-York, où il est maintenant rentré, le juge Robert Jakson, avocat général américain au tribunal de Nuremberg, commente ce suicide de la façon suivante :

— Le suicide de Goering a tué le mythe du stoïcisme et de la bravoure nazis. Le fondateur des camps de concentration ne pouvait affronter le gibet en personne. Goering, le survivant des chefs nazis de haut vol, était le seul accusé sur lequel on aurait pu placer le mythe du martyre.

« Le gibet lui offrait l’estrade la plus efficace de laquelle il aurait pu Impressionner ses sympathisants avec la profondeur de sa conviction dans la cause, avec l’oubli de soi-même. Franchement, j’ai craint qu’il le ferait.

« Mais il manquait de caractère. Même des hommes moins haut placés, qui furent ses satellites, sont morts plus courageusement.

Hélas ! Jakson se trompe. En effet, les Allemands relèvent la tête.

— Nous savons pourquoi Goering souriait tout le temps pendant procès, dit l’un.

— Voilà la meilleure nouvelle que j’ai apprise depuis longtemps.

— C’était la meilleure solution, disent d’autres.

Un correspondant de United Press note que la popularité du lieutenant de Hitler n’a jamais été aussi grande qu’aujourd’hui. Et l’un des deux seuls Allemands qui avait assisté à l’exécution des dix autres condamnés, le Dr Friedrich Leistner, procureur général allemand à Nuremberg, tout en considérant que le châtiment était juste, n’hésite pas à dire :

— Un certain nombre d’Allemands considéreront le suicide de Goering comme un reste de courage.

« Ils se réjouiront de ce que le Reichsmarschall n’ait pas eu à mourir d’une mort ignominieuse. »

Cependant l’Allemagne vote communiste, social-démocrate et démocrate-chrétien.

Le virus est en sommeil, mais il est toujours là, prêt au réveil. Il se manifeste aujourd’hui discrètement, inconsciemment peut-être.

Ceux qui, dans un mois, devront commencer à régler le sort de l’Allemagne doivent y penser et rester vigilants. Il y a les quelques Allemands avec qui l’on peut parier. Il y a aussi les autres, ceux qui se réjouissent de voir Goering échapper au châtiment.

C’est ce que, dès 1940, un écrivain allemand. Ernst Erich Noth, réfugié en France depuis Quelques années, disait, au moment de fuir en Espagne, à ceux qui l’avaient accueilli sur notre sol à Montpellier : Pierre-Henri Teitgen et son père. Ernest Peret rapporte ses paroles dans un livre récent, « Allemagne-Europe », qui est en quelque sorte le dossier de la France sur l’Allemagne et dont nous reparlerons. Ces paroles, les voici :

« Merci, amis Français ! Mais, demain, prenez garde ! Après la défaite, nous, les exilés, les libéraux allemands, nous serons pour vous un très sérieux danger ! Ne vous étonnez pas, ne vous récriez pas : on nous rappellera alors en Allemagne, on nous y mettra en vedette, à la tête des cortèges, au premier rang des rencontres internationales, pour donner le change au monde. Et l’on dira : « L’Allemagne prussienne, l’Allemagne nazie, l’Allemagne militarisée n’est plus. Voici la vraie Allemagne ! Faites-lui confiance ! »

« Malheur â vous, mes amis, mal heur à votre pays et à l’Europe si, une fois encore vous vous laissez prendre à cette duperie Nous ne serons qu’une poignée au-devant de la masse, quelques rangs en tête du cortège ; derrière nous la masse allemande, pour longtemps infestée de prussianisme et de nazisme, se préparera à la revanche. Oui, on se servira de nofls pour vous tromper. Prenez garde ! »

Comme on voudrait que le faux prophète soit Ernst Erich Noth plutôt que Jackson !

Mais, à la veille du débat de New-York sur l’Allemagne, nous resterons inquiets tant que nous ne saurons pas que nos grands Alliés ne partagent pas les sentiments de Jakson.

Jean DANNENMULLER

1166

Wiener Kurier (October 18, 1946)

Nürnberger Verbrecher für immer ausgelöscht:
Leichen wurden verbrannt, Asche in alle Winde verstreut

Nürnberg (WK.) - Die alliierte Exekutionskommission veröffentlichte folgendes Kommuniqué: „Die Leiche Hermann Görings und die Leichen der Kriegsverbrecher, die am 16. Oktober laut Urteil des Alliierten Militärgerichts hingerichtet wurden, sind verbrannt und ihre Asche geheim verstreut worden.“ Das Kommuniqué war von der Kommission der vier Mächte unterzeichnet.

Göring muß schon länger im Besitz des Giftes gewesen sein

Über den geheimnisvollen Selbstmord Görings erklärte Oberst Andrus, der Kommandant des Nürnberger Gefängnisses, einem Vertreter der United Press: „Ich bin der Ansicht, daß Göring sich schon längere Zeit im Besitz des Giftes befand. Es ist jedoch für uns alle rätselhaft, wie es ihm gelingen konnte, die Giftphiole so geschickt zu verbergen.“

Trug er die Giftphiole in einer Bauchfalte?

An der Leiche Görings entdeckten Militärärzte eine rätselhafte zweieinhalb Zentimeter lange Wunde am Unterleib - möglicherweise das Versteck- der Giftphiole.

Bei der Besichtigung der Leichen der Gerichteten fanden die Gerichtsärzte etwa drei Kubikzentimeter Blut im Nabel Görings und schritten zu einer sorgfältigen Untersuchung, wobei die flache Wunde in der Nähe des Nabels unter Fettfalten entdeckt wurde. Durch Verbergen der Giftkapsel unter der Haut dürfte es Göring gelungen sein, die Alliierten Ärzte zu täuschen, die an den sonst üblichen Verstecken am Leib keine Spur der Phiole gefunden hatten.

Inzwischen verwahrte sich der Verteidiger Görings, Dr. Otto Stahmer, in seiner Villa in Kiel energisch gegen die Verdächtigungen, er habe Göring das Gift zugesteckt.

Viermächtekommission überprüft die Bleistiftnotizen

Die drei geheimnisvollen, mit Bleistift beschriebenen Blätter, die in Görings Zelle gefunden wurden, sind dem Viermächteausschuß sofort zugeleitet worden. Der Gefängniskommandant von Nürnberg, Andrus, hatte nicht einmal Gelegenheit, das eine Blatt, das an ihn adressiert ist, zu sehen. Der Brief wurde unmittelbar vor Verübung des Selbstmordes geschrieben.

Bisher noch keine Verhaftungen

Ein aus drei amerikanischen Offizieren bestehender Untersuchungsausschuß unter dem Vorsitz eines Stabsoffiziers der dritten US-Armee hielt vorgestern seine erste Sitzung ab, um den Selbstmord Görings aufzuklären. Der Untersuchungsausschuß hat, wie Oberst Richard McConnell gestern auf einer Pressekonferenz im Justizpalast bekanntgab, bisher noch keine Verhaftungen vorgenommen.

Papen hofft noch immer auf Einreise in die britische Zone

Franz von Papen war gestern voller Hoffnung, daß ihm die Einreise in die britische Besatzungszone gestattet werde.

Papen befindet sich zur Zeit noch immer als „Gast“ im Nürnberger Gefängnis. Frau von Papen war es während der letzten Tage wegen der Hinrichtungen nicht gestattet worden, ihren Gatten zu besuchen.

Labour-Abgeordnete fordern englischen Schutz für Freigesprochene

London (FND,) - Zwei Abgeordnete der Arbeiterpartei verlangten vorgestern im Unterhaus das Einschreiten der britischen Regierung zum Schutze von Papen, Schacht und Fritzsche gegen jede Gefahr eines neuerlichen Prozesses, solange die Leidenschaften in Deutschland nicht zur Ruhe gekommen sind.

1167

Die Stimme AMERIKAS

Nürnberger Hinrichtung Ausdruck neuen Völkerrechtes

Die Hinrichtung der zehn Nazi-Kriegsverbrecher und der Selbstmord Görings werden von den amerikanischen Kommentatoren in Presse und Rundfunk vielfach als Abschluß der nazistischen Welteroberungsträume angesehen. Die Todesurteile werden als Ausdruck einer neuen Völkerrechtsauffassung betrachtet, nach welcher jeder einzelne, der sich der Vorbereitung oder Durchführung eines Angriffskrieges schuldig macht, ein Verbrechen gegen die menschliche Gemeinschaft begeht.

„New York Times“: „Die Hinrichtung der Nazi-Kriegsverbrecher ist eine ernste Warnung an alle, die es sich einfallen lassen könnten, es denen nachzutun, welche von der Menschheit auf Grund der neuen völkerrechtlichen Auffassungen ausgetilgt wurden. Das Urteil hat auch den Beweis erbracht, daß letzten Endes die herausgeforderte Macht der Menschlichkeit über ihre Beleidiger triumphieren muß. Wenn aber die abgeurteilten Naziführer als abschreckendes Beispiel für die Zukunft dienen sollen, ist es wichtig, daß die richtigen Lehren gezogen werden. Sie waren Scheusale und trugen das Gepräge ihrer deutschen Umgebung. Darüber hinaus waren sie auch die Vertreter etwas viel Allgemeineren und Allzumenschlichen. Sie bildeten erschreckende Beispiele der grauenhaften Niedrigkeit, zu der die Menschennatur absinken kann: sie zeigten die grenzenlose Fähigkeit zum Bösen, welche zu Tage tritt, sobald der kollektive Egoismus einer Rasse, eines Volkes oder einer Klasse solchermaßen übersteigert wird, daß die Menschenwürde des einzelnen und seine Rechte zerstört werden und sogar Verbrechen im Namen einer angeblich höheren Moral für berechtigt erklärt werden. Sie waren keine starken. Männer, sondern schwächliche Vertreter eines Typus, den es überall gibt. Und weil es diese Sorte Menschen überall gibt, ist es mehr denn je notwendig, sich vor Weltanschauungen und Systemen zu hüten, die schwache Menschen in Scheusale nach dem Muster der Nazi verwandeln.“

„P. M.“ (New York): „Solange jene frei sind, die an dieselben Irrlehren glauben, an die die elf Hingerichteten geglaubt haben, muß das Verfahren weitergehen. Es braucht nicht vor einem höheren Tribunal und in keiner Atmosphäre juristischer Formen und Beweisverfahren vor sich gehen, aber es muß auf den Märkten und Plätzen und in allen politischen Bereichen der Welt fortgeführt werden, in jedem Herzen und jedem Gehirn.“

„Baltimore Sun“: „Selbst, wenn man zugibt, daß dem Verfahren Schwächen althafteten, muß anderseits anerkannt werden, daß jede andere Methode der Bestrafung mit noch wesentlich größeren Schwächen belastet gewesen wäre. Richter Jackson machte uns von allem Anfang an darauf aufmerksam, daß wir uns in diesem peinlichen Verfahren die Zustimmung der Nachwelt sichern müßten. Wir können die Dinge nicht mit den Augen der Nachwelt sehen, aber soweit wir sie jetzt schon beurteilen können, scheint es zweifelsfrei, daß wir das Richtige getroffen haben.“

„Detroit Free Press“: „Die Nürnberger Galgen stehen vor uns wie aufgerichtete Mahnmale, um alle jene zu warnen, die vielleicht neuerdings einen Traum von Welteroberung und Versklavung träumen. Diesen wird eindringlich vor Augen geführt, daß auch die beste Aufrüstung eines Landes nicht mehr ausreicht, um einen mörderischen und grausamen Verbrecher vor dem bitteren Ende zu bewahren.“

„Washington Star“: „Der Nürnberger Versuch ist erfolgreich abgeschlossen worden. Nun erhebt sich die Frage, ob die Völker der Welt auf dieser Grundlage weiterbauen wollen, und ob die errichteten Grundsätze nicht nur dazu dienen, um besiegte Verschwörer für ihre Taten zu bestrafen, sondern auch ausreichen, um die Menschheit allerorts vor Verfolgung, Unterdrückung und Sklaverei zu bewahren.“

„St. Louis Post-Dispatch“: „Die Gerechtigkeit ist nun in der Lage, auch den größten aller Verbrecher zu bestrafen. Die internationale Gerechtigkeit ist mündig geworden.“

„St. Louis Globe Democrat“: „Die Hinrichtungen in Deutschland bedeuten einen neuen und machtvollen Warnungsruf an die Welt, daß nicht nur ein Volk, sondern auch seine kriegshetzerischen Führer für einen Angriffskrieg verantwortlich gemacht werden können.“

1168

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (October 18, 1946)

Goering hid vial in body cut, report

Nazi criminals cremated and ashes secretly scattered

NUERNBERG, Oct. 17 (UP) – Prison medical officers found a one-inch wound on the abdomen of Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering after his death and he may have kept there, just under his skin, the poison container which enabled him to commit suicide, a usually reliable informant said tonight.

The disclosure followed earlier announcement the bodies of Goering and the 10 German war criminals who were hanged had been cremated and the ashes scattered secretly.

It came also after disclosure that during the war crimes trial guards took from both Goering and Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel sharpened pieces of metal.

Circumstantial story

The informant who reported the wound on Goering’s abdomen saw the bodies of Goering and the hanged men after they were stripped for official photographs.

His story was not confirmed officially but it was circumstantial.

After his suicide, Goering’s body lay naked on a stretcher in the execution chamber, the prison gymnasium.

Medical officers started examining the body. They pried apart thick folds of skin on the abdomen of the once overweight Nazi leader. One noticed blood in Goering’s navel, the informer said. This, he added, led to discovery of the wound.

The informant suggested that Goering long ago had the poison container inserted under his skin, where even a close physical examination would not reveal it, and in the last hours before his scheduled execution ripped open his abdomen to get it.

Smaller than reported

The brass cartridge case which contained the poison vial was smaller than at first reported, it was learned – a little less than two inches long and possibly 3/10 inch in diameter.

A prison spokesman revealed that almost two months before the trial ended a sharp piece of metal, apparently part of a courtroom earphone receiver, was taken from Goering during a search of his cell.

The informant also gave information on the condition of the bodies of the hanged men. British correspondents had alleged the executions were bungled. Prison authorities denied it.

Cremation and the scattering of the ashes were in accordance with the Allied policy of allowing no high Nazi the privilege of a grave which might become a shrine for German fanatics.

1169

Nazi trials not finished, Truman says

Considering Jackson’s suggestion four powers take task individually

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (AP) – President Truman declared today the task of meting out justice to Nazi “malefactors” is not finished – that guilty industrialists, diplomats, police officials and others remain to be punished.

He did not say specifically how they should be brought to book, but declared he would give “careful consideration” to Supreme Court Justice Jackson’s suggestion that the four occupying powers individually hold the trials.

The president gave his views in a letter accepting the resignation of Jackson as U.S. prosecutor at the International Military Tribunal which sentenced leading Nazis.

“Although your own part in the dispensing of international justice is at an end, there remains, as you emphasize, the task of meting out justice to the German militarists, industrialists, politicians, diplomats and police officials,” the president wrote.

He added that the guilt of this group “does not differ from the guilt of the criminals who have already been dealt with except that these remaining malefactors played their miserable roles at lower levels.”

It was the president’s first formal statement on the verdict. Mr. Truman said the precedent established at Nuernberg “becomes basic in the international law of the future,” and added: “The principles established and the results achieved place international law on the side of peace as against aggressive warfare.”

1170

d.thompson

On the Record…
New law of nations urged as a sequel to Nuernberg

By Dorothy Thompson

Now that the Nazi leaders have swung from the gallows, and Goering has taken the hemlock, thereby joining his fate with that of Hitler and Goebbels – a final triumph under all the circumstances – we cannot escape a queasy apprehension that what has happened is not justice, but a lynching, remembering that lynching is not justice even when the victims are not innocent.

Perhaps the best comment on the trials was made back in 1943 by E. B. White, that witty and lucid moralist of the New Yorker, whose originally anonymous essays in behalf of a world law have been published in a most commendable little book, “The Wild Flag.”

Speaking, not of German, but of Japanese crimes, Mr. White said:

“During the great storm which broke following the Jap executions of American fliers, two phrases were heard… the Japs had ‘violated military law’ and would be ‘brought to justice.’ It is time now for remembering that such phrases are false, such words dangerous, when misused. The Japs violated no law, and their leaders will not be brought to justice, though they will be brought to something else… The ‘laws’ of warfare are… merely a set of rules for quarreling which any nation ban disregard if it chooses. When war comes, each nation makes its own rules… When at last Japan is punished, as she will be, … the act of punishing will not be justice. To call it justice is to do ourselves a disservice because it deflects attention from the terrible spectacle of a world without law…

“There is a sharp need for definitions in the words of Saroyan’s barfly, there is ‘no foundation all down the line.’ Nothing is more frightening than to hear what is not law called law, and what is not justice called justice.”

If what has been retroactively declared to be law in the case of the Nuernberg defendants is to become law, the next thing for the Nuernberg tribunal to do is to call upon the United Nations to declare that the crimes charged against the Nazis are henceforward crimes wherever and by whomsoever committed. The next thing for the United Nations to do is to legislate a new law of nations containing, on the basis of the Nuernberg trials, most careful definitions of what is prohibited to states and persons in the service of states; and to create a supreme court of nations, before which breaches of the law may be prosecuted and an international police force to enforce the judgments of that court.

That, of course, means the beginning of a world state, for it involves the relinquishing of the basic principle of national sovereignty, which is the right to live outside any law except the nation’s own.

Yet, the essence of justice – and no honest man can get away from this – is that those who make, prosecute, judge and punish must accept and live under the rules they enforce, and if they refuse to do so, there is no justice, there is only force. And if the law is not now created, then the lesson of the Nuernberg trials is that any victorious state (or victorious political party) may dispose of its enemies however it pleases, which does not lead us into law and justice, but backward to the pre-Christian era and the practices of pagan antiquity.

According to Justice Jackson’s highly philosophical report to the President, the proceedings at Nuernberg were to establish jurisdiction under international law to call to account, as criminals, breakers of peace and the “laws of humanity” – actually, at the time, nonexistent as laws.

This, which is highly desirable in principle, has, in procedure, been unfortunately contrary to accepted and unalterable standards of justice. This fact will overshadow the whole issue and compromise the very underlying idea, unless further steps are taken to embody it in an institutional framework.

Otherwise, the principles advanced by the United States cannot be regarded as more than a sham “legalization” to cover much less lofty motives; and the Nuernberg trials, instead of opening a new epoch of humanistic international law, will open an epoch of lawlessness and arbitrary “peoples’ tribunals,” in which no man’s head will be safe from the noose, and in which the forms and concepts of Nazi and other totalitarian and usurpational “justice” will, in fact, have been confirmed.

1171

The Evening Star (October 18, 1946)

Goering reported to have told plans for suicide in letter

Messages found in cell to be sent to Allied Council

NUERNBERG (AP) – Hermann Goering in a last burst of braggadocio wrote a letter telling just how he purposed to commit suicide under the noses of his guards, a high source reported today.

That informant said the letter, addressed to Col. B. C. Andrus, and two more found in his cell would be submitted, probably Monday, to the Allied Control Council in Berlin.

One of the letters, the source said, was addressed to the Reichsmarshal’s widow, Emmy Goering, and the other was addressed to the German people, urging them to have courage.

Others besides Goering among the 10 doomed Nazi leaders had hoped to beat the gallows by suicide, a security official revealed. Capt. Samuel Binder said that from January 1 until the execution day guards 10 times had found prohibited articles in the cells of the condemned. He said any of these articles might have been used for self-destruction.

The articles ranged from a single screw found in the cell of Baron Constantin von Neurath to a glass vial in the possession of Joachim von Ribbentrop.

Prison officials theorized that Goering probably slipped his poison vial into his mouth while seated on the commode in a corner of his cell the night of the executions.

Col. Andrus, showing correspondents the cell which had been occupied by the condemned Reichsmarshal, pointed out that the commode was so located that the guard peering constantly through the door could not possibly have seen the upper part of the prisoner’s body.

It was recalled that the Nazi labor chief, Robert Ley, managed to avoid detection in the same way when he hanged himself by attaching a wet towel to a plumbing fixture.

Brain studies vetoed

The legs and feet of the prisoner were plainly visible to the guard, who was instructed to enter the cell on the slightest suspicion. Some prisoners frequently objected to this, said Capt. Robert Starnes of Birmingham. Alabama, a prison officer.

How the poison vial, contained within a 2-inch cartridge, got into the cell remained a major mystery. Col. Andrus said it would have been impossible for Goering to conceal the cartridge on his person for any length of time. He said the prison doctor never at any time made a rectal examination of Goering after the Nazi leader was committed to this jail.

A high source, meanwhile, revealed that the Allied Control Council had rejected after long and bitter argument a proposal that the brains of Goering and the 10 executed leaders who followed him in death be examined scientifically.

The subject of examining the brains of the men was raised in several sessions of the four-power council for Germany, an anonymous but thoroughly reliable officer said, but it was vetoed each time.

With the ashes of the 11 dead Nazis scattered, it became apparent here that the decision to cremate the executed men. together with that of Goering, was made only a short time before Wednesday morning’s hangings, because officials in Nuernberg were preparing as recently as last Thursday for ordinary, but extraordinarily secret, burials.

Reports circulating here indicated that discussion among the four occupying powers as to what to do with the bodies after death centered around two main factors:

  • How much criticism would be involved in cremating the 11 men – including five Catholics – inasmuch as the Roman Catholic Church prohibits cremation?

An informed source at the Vatican said last night that the cremation of the Nazis was “not approvable” by the church, but that he doubted any official pronouncement would be made in the ease. He said it did not appear to be a case involving “extraordinary circumstances” which would permit an exception being made.

He added that if the officials who ordered the cremations were Catholics they might be guilty of “a sin of certain gravity,” but that in view of the desire to avoid possible defilement of the graves the Vatican probably would not consider the violation sufficiently grave to warrant any official action.

  • Which is better, to keep the world in the dark about the final disposition of the bodies, or to make it impossible for anyone to do anything about, the bodies even if everyone knew what happened?

Prevailing opinion

In the final analysis, it was reported, this was the trend of thought which finally prevailed:

As long as the bodies were buried, no matter where, there might be fanatics seeking them out. either for glorification or defilement. With cremation there could be no doubt that incidents such as exhumation of the body of Benito Mussolini would be avoided.

The cremations were conducted in the strictest secrecy and there were no indications as to where they occurred. Disposition of the ashes also was in the top-secret category, without a hint as to whether the ashes were scattered over land or sea, although the prevailing opinion was that the disposition was made from a plane.

1172

Widow says he told her he no longer had any poison

NUERNBERG (AP) – Hermann Goering’s sobbing widow said today her husband, when she saw him last, a few days before the appointed date for his execution, told her he no longer had any of the poison with which he had hoped to cheat Allied justice.

Interviewed at her Neuhaus residence, Mrs. Emmy Goering said she had asked him whether he had a poison vial such as both had possessed when they were captured.

“He answered ‘No, I don’t have any more,’ she said. “I don’t know whether he really had not at this time, or whether he did not wish to tell me. He fully trusted in me but maybe he was afraid I would blab out in surprise.”

Goering had a vial of poison on his person when he was captured, but was relieved of it by his captors. The source of the vial with which he took his own life two hours before he was to hang still was a mystery.

Mrs. Goering sent her daughter, Edda May, away, before she continued, and then said:

“I can’t believe it yet. I can’t imagine that this man is no longer alive. He was my husband, and I side with him, and I will side with him after his death, too.”

But she said she was glad – if one might use such a word in such circumstances – of all the precautions taken to keep her separated from her husband in her visits to the prison.

“It was so terrible for me to have no touch at all with him when I visited him. and I wished ‘if I could shake hands with him only once.’ That was a lucky circumstance, now, that I was always separated from him by that glass shelf.”

This circumstance apparently lifted any suspicion from Goering’s wife as a possible bearer of the poison vial.

“I am glad, too, that he died in such a way – if one may be glad. Indeed it would not have been tolerable for me,” she said. “I don’t know whether I would have made up my mind to help him by poison if I had had the opportunity to do so. I don’t know who gave him that poison, but I would wish to see this man who helped him.”

The 53-year-old Mrs. Goering now lives with her 8-year-old daughter and a maid named Cilly, on 200 marks ($20) a month. She ridiculed rumors that she would return to the stage.

“I am suffering from sciatica and I can’t easily move my arms. I would be unable to act as an actress nor do I think of doing it.” She said she probably would seek asylum in Bavaria, or might go to the Isle of Sylt in the British zone where she has a small estate.

She said that although she and her husband knew Hitler “was crazy,” Goering “certainly was Hitler’s most faithful adherent until death.”

“He did not betray Hitler and Germany, though having had no influence with Hitler in the last period. It was frightening even for us to be put in detention by his order,” she said.

In the last days of Berlin, Hitler denounced Goering, suspecting the Reichsmarshal of plotting against him.

1173

The Waterbury Democrat (October 18, 1946)

Prison staff could carry Goering vial

Workers allowed to leave grounds daily after Oct. 6

Nuernberg (UP) – A channel of communication between Hermann Goering’s suicide cellblock and the outside world was disclosed today when German employees of the prison said they had been permitted to leave it daily since October 6.

German help around the cell block in which Goering killed himself had been understood heretofore to be limited to the prison themselves. But today spokesmen for the 21 employees in cell block C told correspondents that the restriction had been off since 10 days before the executions.

On October 6, the employees said, they were allowed to leave the prison for the first time since they accompanied Col. Burton C. Andrus here from Mondorf, Luxembourg. They exchanged their prisoner of war status for that of voluntary but confined contract laborers.

American prison officials denied that the bulky Nazi’s body bore any scratch or other sign that the poison capsule had been concealed under the skin of his bulk abdomen.

The denials were entered by Lt. Charles Roska, Nuernberg prison physician, and Col. B. C. Andrus, prison commandant. Andrus admitted, however, that he had not made a thorough personal examination of Goering’s body.

However, both Roska and Andrus flatly denied reports which had come from a competent source last night that a small scratch had been found on Goering’s abdomen, large enough in which to conceal the tiny potassium cyanide capsule.

Roska said he had made a careful examination of Goering’s body after the suicide and found no wound of any nature on the abdomen.

Nuernberg (UP) – Capt. Robert Starnes, Nuernberg prison officer, revealed today that two days before the Nuernberg executions he discovered a child’s kite in a tree between the condemned row and the death house in the Nuernberg prison yard.

He said a scribbled piece of paper was attached to the kite but that the handwriting could not be deciphered.

Starnes had no explanation of the kite but did not attach any significance to it.

1174

Roundup of Case:
Amateur detectives, can you solve Goering suicide?

By the United Press

EDITOR’S NOTE: It has been suggested that the Goering suicide case be given special treatment for the millions of mystery story fans among American newspaper readers. The following roundup of what is known and what is still not known about the case is intended for the amateur detectives who are “working” on a solution.

How did Hermann Goering cheat the Allies by taking his own life?

Who gave him the potassium cyanide capsule?

Where did Goering hide the capsule?

How did the former Reichsmarshal gulp poison under the very eyes of a security guard?

Those questions and a dozen others perplexed the world today as mystery story fans puzzled over a solution to one of the biggest international mysteries of recent times.

At Nuernberg, where a special three-man international inquiry in to the Goering affair was under way, little light was thrown upon Goering’s dramatic suicide. An official blackout was thrown over the case and correspondents were unable to obtain more than the meagerest information.

Facts picked out

Solid facts picked out of the cloud of speculation included:

  • Goering obtained from an unknown source a small container made from a brass cartridge. Inside the container was a tiny glass vial containing an unknown quantity of potassium cyanide, possibly a grain or two dissolved in as little as 10 drops of water.

  • Goering managed to secrete the capsule over an unknown period – possibly many months, possibly only a few days.

  • Who gave him the capsule was not known. Nuernberg sources appeared inclined to rule out his wife, Emmy, and his lawyer, Dr. Otto Stahmer.

  • Medical evidence made certain that Goering swallowed the poison only a minute or two before the guard watching him heard Goering make a strange noise and entered his cell at 10:45 P.M. Tuesday, two hours before he was scheduled to be hanged.

Poison rapid killer

Medical evidence regarding the poison was one of the few ascertain facts in the strange case.

Toxicologists reported that only a grain or two of the poison is required to cause death. Potassium cyanide is one of the swiftest poisons known. It acts upon the nerve centers and the brain and produces unconsciousness within one minute. It kills within five minutes, or less.

Thus, there appeared no doubt that Goering had crushed the poison vial between his teeth only a moment or so before the guard’s attention was attracted. This was borne out by the testimony of Capt. Henry P. Gerecke, prison chaplain, who entered the cell a moment after the guard and found Goering still alive but in his death throes.

Nothing has been revealed by Nuernberg prison officials as to what means were available, if any, on the cell block floor for revival of prisoners in event of any suicide attempt by poisoning.

Antidotes virtually nil

However, a German physician was on the floor at the moment the guard heard the noise from Goering’s cell and entered the cell with a sergeant of the prison guard.

In any event, toxicologists reported, there probably was nothing to do to prevent death. The only antidote, it was said, is methylene blue but it must be injected into the system instantly and even with the quickest possible injection the chances of saving the victim are virtually nil.

Chemists said that if the capsule in which the cyanide was kept was airtight as presumably was the case, the chemical would keep indefinitely. Thus, they reported, the quickness of the death did not provide any clue as to whether the drug was fresh or old, or whether Goering acquired it recently or a long time ago.

The type of poison vial employed by Goering was well known to Allied authorities.

Earlier capsule found

Hubert Biddle of Columbus, O., former Army captain in charge of Goering when he was first taken into custody, said he had found one such capsule concealed in a can of powdered coffee which Goering had with him when captured. He said the capsule was small enough to hold under the tongue without interfering with normal conversation.

This indicated that it was possible Goering might have had possession of the capsule for a long time. Both Nuernberg experts and physicians were Inclined to believe Goering must have kept the capsule on his person, possibly secreting it in one of the recesses of the body after the manner which drug addicts sometimes conceal small quantities of morphine or heroin.

Goering’s body was searched at intervals during his imprisonment as was his clothing. His cell was inspected dally. How often his person was searched and how thoroughly was not specifically revealed by prison officials but there was a suggestion that these examinations may have been cursory in recent weeks due to the fact he had been Inspected many times before and had been in custody for 18 months.

The answer to the puzzler as to how Goering managed to take the poison without attracting the notice of a guard who was under instructions never to take his eyes off the prisoner seemed easier to answer.

1175

L’Aube (October 19, 1946)

Goering a-t-il caché l‘ampoule fatale dans la cicatrice d’une vieille blessure ?

La commission d’enquête constituée pour élucider le mystère du suicide de Goering a terminé ses travaux. Ceux-ci demeureront secrets jusqu’à nouvel ordre. Toute fois on croit savoir que le condamné aurait pu cacher l’ampoule de cyanure dans les replis de sa graisse. Il avait notamment à l’abdomen une blessure de deux centimètres qui aurait pu servir à cette fin. D’autre part, Goering aurait déjà préparé son suicide, il y a trois mois. Il pensait alors employer un morceau de celluloïd.

On s’aperçut, un matin, que les écouteurs de Goering fonctionnaient mal. Le technicien qui vint les examiner découvrit que l’ex-maréchal avait retiré d’un des écouteurs un morceau de celluloïd, « assez tranchant pour couper une artère ».

Cette découverte semble confirmer la thèse selon laquelle Goering n’avait pas encore le poison à ce moment-là et qu’il s’est procuré du cyanure tout récemment.

Dans une interview accordée au correspondant de l’Associated Press, Mme Emmy Goering a déclaré que, répondant à sa question, son mari lui avait dit ne plus avoir d’ampoule de poison semblable à celle qu’il possédait lors de son arrestation. Elle pense qu’il devait craindre qu’elle ne laisse échapper ce secret dans un moment d’émotion.

1176

Wiener Kurier (October 19, 1946)

Aufklärung über Görings Selbstmord steht unmittelbar bevor?

Mitteilungen zweier Generale des Alliierten Kontrollrates

Nürnberg (UP-INS.) - Zwei Generale des Alliierten Kontrollrates für Deutschland teilten gestern mit, daß die Aufklärung des Selbstmordes Görings unmittelbar bevorstehe.

Die beiden Generale, die diese Auskunft gaben, repräsentierten ihre Staaten bei der Vornahme der Hinrichtung an den zehn Hauptkriegsverbrechern. Dadurch erhalten die bisher aufgetretenen Vermutungen, daß die Enthüllung der wahren Vorgänge um Görings Selbstmord in dem Brief enthalten war, den Göring vor seinem Tode an den Gefängniskommandanten Oberst Andrus gerichtet hat, eine neue Bestätigung.

Nürnberger Gefängnisdirektor muß sich verantworten

Oberst Andrus, der Gefängnisdirektor von Nürnberg, wurde gestern vor den Alliierten Untersuchungsausschuß zitiert, um sich über die von ihm getroffenen Sicherheitsmaßnahmen in bezug auf die Hinrichtung der zum Tode verurteilten Kriegsverbrecher zu verantworten. Der sowjetrussische Vertreter brachte dem von Oberst Andrus abgegebenen Bericht besonderes Interesse entgegen.

Ein Besuch des Gefängnisinneren führte zu der überraschenden Entdeckung, daß die Sicherheitsmaßnahmen bei weitem nicht eine so lückenlose Absperrung der Häftlinge herbeigeführt hatten, wie dies ursprünglich angenommen wurde. So war es deutschen Kriegsgefangenen zum Beispiel möglich gewesen, Nahrungsmittel in die Hände der Verurteilten gelangen zu lassen, in denen mit Leichtigkeit das Gift verborgen sein konnte.

Görings verdächtige Neigung zum Pfeifenrauchen

Ein harmlos aussehender, ruhiger, deutscher Kriegsgefangener, der in der Bibliothek des Nürnberger Gefängnisses beschäftigt war, steht unter dem Verdacht, die näheren Umstände, die zu dem rätselhaften Selbstmord Görings führten, zu kennen, wie der amerikanische Psychologe Dr. Gilbert einem Vertreter der United Press erklärte. Dr. Gilbert, der Göring seit einem Jahr fast täglich in seiner Zelle besuchte, führte aus, daß es ihm schon lange aufgefallen war, daß Göring an einer langen Pfeife, die er täglich rauchte, einen fast unnatürlichen Gefallen fand.

Göring sandte diese Pfeife in den letzten Wochen etliche Male mit Genehmigung der Gefängnisoffiziere zu dem deutschen Kriegsgefangenen in die Bibliothek, um sie dort reinigen zu lassen, da er selbst keine Hilfsmittel dazu besaß, wie er betonte. Dr. Gilbert gewann schon damals den Eindruck, daß Göring auf diese Weise versuchte, eine Verbindung mit der Außenwelt herzustellen, dachte jedoch, daß diese Verbindung lediglich Propagandazwecken dienen sollte.

Heß ist Gefangener Nr. 350215

Rudolf Heß, der Mann, der einst den klingenden Titel eines „Stellvertreters des Führers“ trug, ist jetzt Gefangener Nr. 350215. Er geht ruhelos in seiner Zelle im Nürnberger Gefängnis auf und ab und erwartet seine Überführung in ein Berliner Gefängnis.

„Osservatore Romano“ verurteilt Verbrennung der Hingerichteten Kriegsverbrecher

Vatikan-Stadt (INS.) - Der „Observatore Romano“ verurteilte gestern scharf die Verbrennung der Leichen der hingerichteten Kriegsverbrecher und bezeichnete diese Maßnahme als „Verletzung aller christlichen Moral“.

Die Verbrennungen könnten nicht damit gerechtfertigt werden, daß sie zur Verhinderung von Gewalttaten einiger Fanatiker oder zur Aufrechterhaltung der öffentlichen Ordnung geschehen seien. Das Blatt spielte auf den Raub der Leiche Mussolinis an und erklärte, daß er leicht durch ein Begräbnis auf hoher See hätte vermieden werden können.

1177

The Evening Star (October 19, 1946)

‘Haven’t got any nerves,’ says GI who hanged Nazi leaders

By Master Sgt. John C. Woods

The soldier hangman at the Nuernberg executions has written his story for the Associated Press. Master Sgt. John C. Woods, short, chunky and 43, has been in the United States Army off and on for 19 years. He landed in Normandy on D-Day and also saw combat in Africa. He refused to give his hometown, because “there’s no use bringing my family into this,” but Army records show he enlisted from Wichita, Kansas.

HEIDELBERG, Germany (AP) – I hanged those 10 Nazis at Nuernberg and I’m proud of it.

That was a job that needed doing for a long time. I did a good job of it, too. Everything clicked perfectly. I’ve hanged 347 people in the last 15 years and I never saw a hanging go off any better. I’m only sorry Goering escaped. I wanted him especially.

I wasn’t nervous. I haven’t got any nerves. A fellow can’t afford to have nerves in this business.

But this Nuernberg job was one I really wanted to do. I wanted that assignment so bad I stayed over here after I could have gone back home just to do it. Those guys really deserved hanging.

I’ll say this for those Nazis, though – they died like brave men. Only one of them showed any signs of weakening. When Frick was climbing those 13 steps of the gallows one leg seemed to go bad on him, and the guards had to steady him.

They were all arrogant. You could see they hated us. Old Jew-baiter Streicher looked right at me when he said “the Bolsheviks will hang you, too, some day.” And I looked him back, right in the eye. They can’t bother me.

There’s not much to tell about the actual hangings. They went off just like any routine hangings. Ten men in 103 minutes. That’s fast work.

Streicher kicked a little

Only one of them even moved after the drop. That was Streicher, the one who shouted “Heil Hitler.” He kicked a little while, but not long. Another one, Sauckel, I think, started to shout “Heil Hitler,” too, after I put the hood over his head, but I cut him off short with the rope.

I used a different rope and different hood on each man. I fixed the nooses and stretched the ropes myself to make sure nothing would go wrong.

The ropes and hoods were burned up with the bodies, leaving nothing for the souvenir hunters. Why, one souvenir hunter from Havana, Cuba, wired an offer of $2,500 for one of those ropes.

I want to put in a good word for those GIs who helped me on that Nuernberg job. Only three of them had never helped in a hanging before, but I trained them all for three weeks and they all did swell. I noticed they were ready for a stiff drink afterwards, though. So was I. I am trying to get those soldiers who helped me a promotion, and I think they will get it, too. They don’t want their names mentioned.

As for my name, well, I guess it’s too late to keep my name out of it. It is too well known over here already. After I started hanging these German war criminals last year somebody tried to poison me here in Germany, and somebody shot at me in Paris, but the poison only made me sick and the bullet missed me.

The way I look at this hanging job, somebody has to do it. I got into it kind of by accident years ago in the States. I attended a hanging as a witness, and the hangman asked me if I’d mind helping. I did, and later I took over myself. I just don’t let it bother me. There was one soldier went crazy, though, after helping me on a five-man execution. Something went wrong on one of those hangings and the guy cracked.

May return to Reich

Now that this Nuernberg job is over, I’m ready to go back to the States, and I’m planning to leave in a few days. But I may come back to Germany. There are more than 120 war criminals waiting to be hanged, including those 43 sentenced for the Malmedy massacre. I had some buddies killed in that massacre, and I’ll come back here just to get even for them.

I am glad that this Nuernberg thing is over, though. That was a strain. They told me in August I’d be the one to do it. I’ve had to keep it a secret all that time.

Three weeks before the hangings they brought in my five soldier assistants, all from different units, and all under secrecy, too. I trained them with 200-pound dummies, went through every step of the proceedings with them.

Then the Sunday before the execution we moved into the Nuernberg Jail. We weren’t allowed to go out or talk to anybody. We worked only at night in getting the scaffolds ready. Everything was done so secretly that not even the guards around the place knew what was going on.

I never saw any of the condemned men until they walked through the door of that execution chamber. I tried several times to get in to see some of the trial, but never succeeded.

I followed it pretty closely in the papers, and studied their pictures, and they gave their names as they came to the scaffold.

But still, it was hard to keep them straight, and it’s hard to remember just what each one did or said – hanging 10 men one after the other so fast, you know. And that was a rope I had in my hand, not a notebook.

1178

The Waterbury Democrat (October 19, 1946)

Goering notes expected to give suicide motive

American inquiry board to meet today with four-power council

Nuernberg (UP) – The American inquiry board hunting the secret of Hermann Goering’s suicide capsule will meet the four-power Allied execution commission today, and a report may be released later in the day, it was reported officially.

Maj. Gen. Roy Rickard, American member of the execution commission, said the three Americans investigating the Goering suicide would meet the four-power commission during the afternoon.

Possibility of a solution to the mystery centered on the three penciled notes held loosely in Goering’s hand when prison officials found him dying of potassium cyanide Tuesday night.

One addressed to Andrus

One note was addressed to Col. Burton C. Andrus, prison commandant. The others reportedly were addressed to Frau Emmy Goering and the German people. Rickard said the inquiry board had gone to Frankfurt Thursday night with “specimens.” He did not indicate the nature of the “specimens.” The board returned to Nuernberg late last night, he said, and had not made any reports to the commission before today.

He said the original copies of the three Goering notes had been sent to the Allied Control Council in Berlin. He refused to divulge their contents.

All three notes were in German. Andrus said he did not know what was in the note addressed to him because he did not read German. He had turned it over to the commission immediately.

Schacht to face trial

“Beyond seeing that the note was addressed to the prison commandant and that it was signed by Goering, I have no idea what was in it,” he said this morning. Hie said he had no part in the investigation.

Bernard T. Moeller, public prosecutor of the Nuernberg de-Nazification court, said Hjalmar Schacht, one of the three acquitted German leaders, probably will be returned to Nuernberg for trial in the German court. Schacht is under arrest in Stuttgart.

Hans Fritzsche, second of the acquitted, is still in Nuernberg and has agreed to stand trial here. Franz von Papen is still a voluntary guest in the Nuernberg prison, awaiting a decision on his application to enter the British zone.

1179

Editorial: If this be vengeance

Sen. Robert A. Taft’s academic sensibilities are offended by the death sentences given 11 Nazi war criminals at Nuernberg. He feels that the sentences, if not the verdict, were a miscarriage of justice, and that life imprisonment would have been punishment enough. He expresses the opinion that most Americans “viewed with discomfort” the Nuernberg and Japanese war crime trials.

Sen. Taft is a lawyer, and his objections may be legally sound. But we doubt that most Americans were outraged by the Nuernberg verdict – unless, indeed, because Hitler’s second political heir escaped the gallows and three of his top advisers and assistants went scot-free.

The whole judgment, Mr. Taft feels, was one of vengeance rather than justice. He thinks that we have violated a fundamental principle of American law by trying the Nazis under an ex-post-facto statute. Further, he believes that hanging 11 men won’t discourage future aggressive war, “for no one makes aggressive war unless he expects to win.”

There is a temptation at this point to paraphrase Patrick Henry and say, “If this be vengeance, make the most of it!” Where does justice end and vengeance begin? Is there no element of vengeance in American laws which permit the execution of men for an individual murder or kidnaping or rape? And why should that element be absent in the trial of men who planned, ordered or executed these crimes by the millions?

Sen. Taft implies that the element of vengeance might have been ruled out if the Nazi war leaders had been given only life imprisonment. But, if the vengeance motive is wrong, why would not any punishment be equally vengeful?

The senator also is disturbed by the ex-post-facto law under which the Nazis were tried. It is true that the nations of the world waited until after a war that took the lives of an estimated 30,000,000 persons to decide that causing the death of 30,000,000 persons was a crime. But to have avoided a legal faux pas at Nuernberg it would have been necessary to wait for another world war before trying its instigators – provided, of course, that any instigators, counsel or judges survived.

Then there is Mr. Taft’s contention that outlawing aggression won’t do much good, since no one makes aggressive war unless he expects to win. That, from a lawyer, seems inconsistent. For it might be argued with equal logic that there isn’t much point in a law against individual murder, since it doesn’t seem to discourage the practice.

But, sound or unsound, Sen. Taft’s legal hair-splitting is in questionable taste, to say the very least. How must it seem to the families of those who were tortured and starved and slain at the will and knowledge and order of these Nazi war lords to hear the solemn senator pleading, in effect, for their lives?

However honest Mr. Taft may have been in estimating American public opinion in this matter, we hope and believe that his finger has slipped off the public pulse. We should rather think that Americans have “viewed with discomfort” his condemnation of the Nuernberg sentences.

1180

L’Aube (October 20, 1946)

LE MYSTÈRE DU SUICIDE de Goering est élucidé

Les conclusions de la commission d’enquête revêtiraient un caractère sensationnel

Le mystère du suicide de Goering est maintenant élucidé. On laisse entendre que sa publication revêtira un caractère sensationnel et l’on croit que le secret qui entoura la fin de l’ex-maréchal du Reich est contenu dans l’une des trois enveloppes que le condamné tenait sous sa main. Une personnalité alliée qui participa à l’enquête a déclaré que « celle-ci révéla tes circonstances très particulières concernant le suicide de Goering ».

Avant de se rendre au supplice, les dix condamnés avaient eu connaissance du suicide de leur complice. Ce fut le colonel Andrus, chef du service de sécurité, qui les en avisa.

Par le truchement des deux aumôniers de la prison, le Père O’Connor et le pasteur Gerecke, qui parlent l’un et l’autre couramment l’allemand, le colonel Andrus tint, en effet, à souligner devant chacun des dix condamnés que les mesures dont ils allaient être l’objet n’avaient pas pour but d’attenter à leur dignité humaine mais ne constituaient qu’une précaution élémentaire après le suicide d’Hermann Goering.

Les médecins auraient tenté de ranimer Goering

Après que Goering eut été découvert râlant dans sa cellule, des efforts furent entrepris pour le mettre dans les plus brefs délais en état de subir Je supplice de la pendaison qui lui était destiné.

Néanmoins, malgré toutes les tentatives il ne fut pas possible de ranimer Hermann Goering.

Si les efforts des spécialistes avaient réussi, son exécution eût été analogue à celle de Pierre Laval.

Von Papen demande l’autorisation de résider à Nuremberg

Franz Von Papen a demandé aux autorités américaines l’autorisation de quitter le palais de justice et de résider dans la ville même de Nuremberg, en attendant de pouvoir partir pour la zone britannique.

1181

The Sunday Star (October 20, 1946)

Laboratory results awaited in probe of Goering suicide

NUERNBERG, Oct. 19 (AP) – An Allied commission investigating the mysterious suicide of Hermann Goering is awaiting the results of laboratory tests before announcing its findings, Col. B. C. Andrus, in charge of the Nuernberg jail, said today.

Col. Andrus, who met with the commission during the day, said he doubted if the findings would be made public before Tuesday.

The prison officer disclosed that the 10 top-ranking Nazis who were hanged early Wednesday morning were told officially that Goering had managed to cheat the gallows by taking poison.

Shackled to guards

“When Goering’s death was discovered, the quadripartite commission (in charge of executions) directed the rest be shackled to guards,” he told newsmen. “I ordered the notice to be given to the condemned men and instructed the chaplains to tell them they were being shackled and why. I told the chaplains to tell them they were not being subjected to indignity.”

Meanwhile, individual guards were removed from the doors of the cell of Rudolf Hess and six other former Nazi leaders sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 years to life.

Col. Andrus said the seven would be treated as ordinary prisoners and would be able to earn certain privileges by good behavior.

The officer said that 174 prisoners, ranging in rank up to field marshal, were now being held in the Nuernberg jail awaiting trial on war crimes charges.

Rosenberg hoped for peace

Alfred Rosenberg, official Nazi philosopher who once preached that war was godly and Germans the chosen of the god of conflict, expressed the hope shortly before his execution that Germany would become peaceful.

Rosenberg, an atheist largely responsible for the Nazi theory of racial extermination, was the only one of the Nazi leaders executed last Wednesday who refused to adopt religion or make any last statement on the gallows.

Alfred Thoma, Rosenberg’s lawyer, said the doomed man had written him shortly before the hangings that “above all I have the sincerest wish that my death and the death of others will clear the way for a peaceful development for the German people and the German country.”

Message sent to wife

Rosenberg asked his lawyer to advise his wife and daughter about business affairs and, if possible, to arrange their transfer from Flensburg, in the British occupation zone, to Bavaria, in the American zone.

Thoma said he had not yet delivered the message to Rosenberg’s wife and dreaded doing so because she was so unfriendly.

Her husband at one time allotted her his tobacco ration because she smokes a pipe, the lawyer said.

“Her only comment on the ration card was: ‘Why didn’t he do this before?’”